FOR SUNDAY READING.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XIII, Issue 1128, 24 July 1903, Page 2

FOR SUNDAY READING.

[Ojxtributed. I

" GOD AND MAMMON."

"Ye oaun >t serve God and Mammon."

About every elevon years, I am in.fonneil, we are to expect a comrner-' 'dial crisis ; Danics, bankruptcies, and misery and ruin to huudreds; a sort of terrible hut benefmenc thunderstorm, which clears the foul atmostphere of our commercial system at tho pxp' snse, alas ! not merely of the guilty, but of the innocent; involving the widow and the orphan, the poor and the simple, in the same fate as the rich and powerful whom they have trusted to their own rum. And yet we boast of our civilisation and of our Christianity ; and hardly one, here and there, lavs the lesson to heart, but each man, like a moth about a candle, unwarned by the fate of his fellows, fanciesihat heat least can flutter round thfe flames and not be burned ; that whoever else cannot serve God and Mammon, he can do it, and holds, by virtue of his superior prudence, a special dispensation from the plain { warnings of Holy Scripture. But every .reasonable man knows what advantages money, and nothing but money, will obtain, not only for a man himself,/but for his children; and answers me— :<lf I wish to rise in liff>, if I wish my children to rise in life, how oau I do it without making money.*' •, . , ■ .. '" God forbid that.'l should check an honourable ambition, and a desire . to rise ia ,i!'e. »Vo all ought o rise in iifo, and t> risi far higher than most of i.s are likely to- rise. But I "ask you lo consider very seriously what you mean by rising in life. Do you rnpaii by rising in life, moieiy be* coming a richer man; living in :ii larger house, eating, drinking, clothing, better; having more servants, carriages, plate? U that to be the highest triumph of all your labours? Is that to bo'j'our notion of rising iv Iifo? If it is, you are not singular in your notion. There are thousands who call themselves civilised and Christians, and yet have no notion of what man's highest good may be, But do you.mean by rising in life, simply becoming a nobler , because a bettor man ? For if you moan that latter I seriously advise you. to hearken to what the Creator and Governor of all heaven and earth, Jesus Christ our Lord, has told you on that matter, when he. said, " Sees ye first the kingdom of God and His i righteousness, and all these things shall be added, unto you" S^ek ye first the kingdom of God. Alas! this , money-makiug generation talks a! great deal about religion and saving . theie souls, being quite indifferent tq the, serious question —whether ' their souls are wqrth. gaying or not;, but as for the kingdom of God, of which.our Lord and His apostles speak so often, they haye forgotten altogether what it is. They talk too, a great deal, about the righteousness of Christ : but they have forgo'tien also what the righteousness of Christ, which is also the' righteousness of God, is like.

The kingdqm of God, the government of Qod ; tha laws 4nd rules by which Christ, King of kings, and King, too, of ovpry nation and inau together," whether they know it or not, governs mankind, $hat is what you nave to seek, because it is there already. You are in Christ's kingdom. If y v wish to prosper in it,' find out what its liiw3 are That will, be true wisdom, For in keeping the commandments of and in obey- ; ing His laws ; in that alone is life ; iiftf for body and soul; life for time and for eternity,

And the righteousness of God, which is the rightfiousnass of Ohrist • —find out what that is, and pr iy to Christ to give it to you ; for so alone will you be what a man- should be, ci'outod after God in righteousness and true holiness, and renewed into the image and-likeness 6E God. The merely assenting 1, merely respectable, even the so-called religious• aiid. orthodox life will "not lot" -you into the kingdom of heaven, either in this life or in the life to come. No. That require.4 the noble life, tho pure life, the just life, the gentle life, the generous lite, the heroic life, the Godlike life, which ia perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, because Ho lets His sun shine on the evil andthe good. But how will this help you to rise in life ? Qur Lord Himself answers—and our Lord should surely kno^jr—" Sjqek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Have faidi in God and in His promise ; and your faith in God shall b.o regarded. Honour and power, wealth and prosperity, as, much ot them as is justly good for you, and as much of them as you deserve—that is earn and merit hy your o^n ability and self-pontrol—shall come to you by the very-laws' rof the universe and by the very providence of God. You shall find that God's kingdom is a well-made,.-"well-ordered kingdom ; and, that the promises of Scripture are no dreams, but actual, praotical, living truths, which come true, and fulfil themselves in the lives and histories of men.

Chocse, • yoiing men ;, choose now ;' and make up your minds which way% you will rise in life ; by merely getting money, ,or by getting wisdom and honour,and virtue. Xi you:want only to be rich, why .then be rich, if you are clever enough. The Lord may give you what you want in this evil \£orld- He may let you heap up money which you da qqt ki^ow how to spend, and be a laughing-stock' to others while you live ; and after )'oU die, your , children will ' probably isquander wha^ 'yon_. have hoarded, vvhikyou'cariy awiiy nothing when yqii die, neither will your, pomp ( folio V y°'u | nff tiv|fo? o^'e, ]Legt y.ou' \fake, aft^r all,' l|VVJQtve> m tlig to^niQ^t, tq hea^ the feni:ful but mosj; reaspnablp words — ''Sqn,- thosi in thy lifetime reccuye^ i-hy good things, and there^ fowthou art tovnented."

Choose, young men, ohooso I now in the golden days of youth,.. and strength aud honour, ere you have laijl $i._yqke«on your' own shoulders—. eveu-Viio yoke of money-worship ; not lights and easy, like the yoke of Christ, but Jjeavier nnd heavier as the years roll (Vi. while you, with fading intellect,} fading- hopes, and it maybe 'fading pred.it, and certainly fa.-lii)£ powet of any, rational enjbyinenfc, have still, lik_o the doomed soul's in iWto's InfernSr to roll hill the moneybags which Are perpetually .slipping back. Choos?»bet'ore you hay.c spread a net jj^yd'^own feet, vfhich,, as 'in disgrows "and tangles .eacli timeyoii move —

even the net of greed and cretft, which men sot for their neighbours, aud are but too apt, eie all .is done, to be taken in themselves ; the net of truly hadsonietj', of the society of men who have' set their hearts on making money, somehow or other; and-,with whom, if you cast in your lot, you may descenl to depths from which your spirits would now shriuk; till your higher naure be .subdued to tie i element in which it, works; and tie poet's curse on all who bind the uselves to natures lowor than their own come true of you—" Thou shalt lower to their level, day by day, all that • onco was fine within theer growing coarae to sympathise with clay?? Or you may choose the other path; the better part that shall not be taken* -^ away from you: for it is according to' the true laws of political and social economy, which are the laws of the Maker of the universe, and of the Redeemer of Mankind. And then, whether or not.you leave your children wealth, you will, at all events, leave them an example by which they and their children's children must prosper to the world's end. Chakles Kingsley.